This year we bought a tent trailer to live in on the playa. I looked everywhere for advice on how to windproof it for those crazy dust storms and really couldn't find a good post with experienced advice on what to do to keep it solid. So now that we have experienced our first year living in a tent trailer at burning man, I wanted to write a little something about how we did it, and open up a discussion to others who have used tent trailers or are thinking about using one next year.

Next, it has it's own stove, a sink with a water tank, and ours had an empty space that was perfect for building a shower with a drain and a place to hang our solar shower bags. Yay, we didn't have to go outside to take a shower, we could do it inside out tent. Big bonus. And last, but definitely not least, the ability to put stuff in a trailer and not have to over pack and weigh down our van made it worth the $300 alone!

We had read that a lot of dust had got into some other tent trailers that had been taken to the playa in years past. Although we know dust is, of course, inherent to the B man experience, we wanted to minimize its impact on our good time. When we were getting ready, we went through and covered as many holes as possible. There were gaps in the canvas where 37 years of shrinking canvas had left big spaces. I bought some canvas that almost matched the original canvas, and did a huge re-patch project with my sewing machine. I used that iron on patch stuff to patch little rips and tears, too. That left a few gaps where the aluminum supports met with canvas, for which I invented some removable dust covers. I measured the sizes in the gaps and cut squares of canvas for them. Then I put Velcro all around the edges, and sewed and stapled Velcro to the corresponding canvas and hard top areas. Also, the pull out â€œwingsâ€

I saw a few tent trailers this year and I noticed that some people would collapse them down during the storms. I don't know if helps with dust or anything but if you were worried about the stability of the structure collapsing it was a good way to ensure it didn't blow over or take off like a kite.

My girlfriend and I made it through this year in a small tent trailer...thankfully we had a big cargo trailer parked to the South of us that helped block a lot of wind. (Thanks Steve). But even with stakes, bungee cords, ratchet straps, and covering everything but one side with a huge silver tarp, it was not an experience I will repeat on the playa. Next year I'll either have the vintage aluminum trailer ready or I'll have a small RV / school bus conversion. Pop-ups may work for some but for my group....we'll pass.

Kinetic V ~~~~~~I bring order to chaos. And I bring chaos to those who deserve it, wherever that may be.

I brought my 12' pop-up out there this year after spending the entire summer remodeling it.

I LOVED IT!!!

We did take some precautions of course. We guy wired the four roof corners down and even brought 2 x 4 to wedge in at the four supports, just in case. We also taped up everything we could.

We happened to be "home" for both dust storms and had a blast watching them come and go. The pop-up did great!! All our precautions worked like a charm and I was not the least bit worried of any damage.

With minimal clean up during the week, it took us 1 1/2 days to completely clean it and start camping again the very next weekend!!

I am however done with the project and ready to move on to another one, may need to sell this beauty and get another one.